How to Transplant Rhubarb

Transplanting rhubarb is best done in the winter when the stalks are cut back, and cutting the entire plant into pieces is a great way to easily maintain the plant. Cut pieces of rhubarb plant, each piece containing a bit of stem and a bit of root, with... View Video Transcript

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Yolanda Vanveen

Video Transcript

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment we're going to talk about, how to transplant rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of my favorite plants in the world, and it's great in strawberry rhubarb pie, or you can take rhubarb and cook it down with sugar and have it with ice cream, it's so wonderful. And it's an easy plant to grow, it's a very cold climate plant, it can handle really cold conditions, and so it will survive for many years. But the do get big and bulky, and a lot of times you want to give them to a friend or you want to divide them out. So there's some rules that I like to follow. The best time to transplant your rhubarb is in the fall or in the winter months, when you've cut all the stocks out and you've used what you needed for that year. And then that way it's more on the dormant stage and it won't shock it so much when you transplant it. But saying that, they're one of the toughest plants in the world. And they have just a root system almost like a woody root, a rhizome type growth. So as long as you've got part of the stem and part of that root you can use it and replant it anywhere else. So I like to just divide it right down the middle like a piece of pie and just cut it into pieces. So trim back all the greenery just maybe 1 or 2 inches so you still have some of it, and then actually just turn it into a pie, cut it into pieces, take the pieces out gently so that you don't actually cut off any of the pieces of stem, because you still want a little bit of stem when you transplant it, and then turn around and put it in a hot sunny spot, where it's going to multiply and grow again for you. Use good composted organic soil, they want a lot of air, potting soil, and make sure and make a hole much bigger than where you're going to plant it so that it has a lot of earthy soil. And when it grows its big roots again then it'll have a place to grow. So by transplanting them when they're not growing and making sure that you have a root with part of a stem you can move your rhubarbs anywhere that you want and enjoy them the next year.